From Train Rides to Game Design: The Unexpected Journey of Retro Goes Up!
Sometimes the most interesting projects emerge from unexpected circumstances. Retro Inc. and the whole world of the Retro Bots have been a passion project of mine for a long time—in fact, it’s one of the main reasons I decided to return to solo development.
While developing this upcoming survival game, I found myself in a unique situation: relocating from the US to Asia, armed with just a laptop and a subset of my game assets. As any developer knows, working on a full-scale open world game on limited hardware can be challenging.
But constraints often breed creativity.
During this transition period, I focused on a small component of Retro Inc.—a mini-game designed as a cosmetic unlock system. As I refined this seemingly simple physics-based platformer during long train rides across Asia, something magical happened.
The core gameplay loop of guiding a bouncing robot through increasingly challenging levels became surprisingly addictive. What started as a reward mechanism within one game evolved into something that deserved its own spotlight.
That’s how Retro Goes Up! was born. The game takes the precise physics-based gameplay you might know from games like Angry Birds, combines it with the satisfying trajectories of mini-golf, and wraps it all in a challenging platformer package.
While waiting for my main workstation to arrive and to properly settle down, I’ve been polishing this experience into something I believe is special.
The result is a game that captures the joy of “just one more try” gameplay. It’s a testament to how limitations can lead to focused, refined experiences. What began as a simple mini-game within Retro Inc. has grown into its own adventure, one that I’m excited to share with players.
While Retro Inc. continues its development journey, Retro Goes Up! stands as a perfect example of how sometimes the best ideas come from the most unexpected places—even from the window seat of a moving train.
Want to learn more about the world of Retro Inc? Check out our detailed blog post here.
And if you haven’t seen it yet, watch the trailers for both Retro Inc. and Retro Goes Up!